[7.7/10] Strong episode. Delving into Zeta and Ro’s backstories is dicey territory, especially when you’re delving into their most formative events, but the show pulls it off really well here.
I especially like seeing Zeta’s story here. It’s simple, but sometimes simple stories can be the most effective. We see him sent on a mission to infiltrate the life of an accountant who seems to be taking or funneling money from a criminal and/or terrorist group. As Zeta assumes the guy’s identity, he inadvertently ends up having to interact with the guy’s family, and sees the love and support they have for one another, particularly the guy’s daughter. Then, in his interaction with the criminals, Zeta realizes the guy is an innocent, caught up in a scheme whose details he doesn’t know about. So when the guy comes home early, and Zeta’s programming tells him he has to kill this blameless accountant and family man simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he can’t do it.
That’s a strong origin story, one made stronger by how much we’ve seen the effect it had on Zeta over the past twenty episodes. Ro’s story isn’t quite as strong, but we see that she had a protective streak, even when she was in Juvie, and that she also had a resourcefulness when it comes to escaping sticky situations long before she met Zeta, even if her desperation led her to fall in to the wrong crowd.
The frame story is frankly the weakest part here. Despite Crick the bounty hunter making for a formidable opponent in his first appearance, he’s watered down here, a secondary antagonist who has to make way for the flashbacks. There is something cool about having Richard Moll (Two-Face from B:TAS) playing a somewhat crazy dude who’s mad at Zeta for messing up half his face, but for the most part, Crick is dispatched without too much trouble, and it doesn’t do much but serve the purpose of adding some kind of threat to what’s a low-key, mostly internal episode.
Still, I appreciate the continuity touches here. The fact that Zeta is experiencing this because of Bennett trying to erase his brain earlier in the season works well as an excuse for the flashbacks. Ro giving Bucky crap for bailing on them then, only giving him some credit when he shows up and tries to help is a good mini-arc for the characters. And I especially like the parallel the episode draws at the end, where seeing the capacity for kindness, in a suburban family or in a robot on the run, changed both Ro and Zeta, and eventually made them their own kind of family.
Overall, this is an important, mythos-heavy episode for the show, illustrating important events we’ve only heard about until now, and it tells that story very well.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-07-29T19:17:07Z
[7.7/10] Strong episode. Delving into Zeta and Ro’s backstories is dicey territory, especially when you’re delving into their most formative events, but the show pulls it off really well here.
I especially like seeing Zeta’s story here. It’s simple, but sometimes simple stories can be the most effective. We see him sent on a mission to infiltrate the life of an accountant who seems to be taking or funneling money from a criminal and/or terrorist group. As Zeta assumes the guy’s identity, he inadvertently ends up having to interact with the guy’s family, and sees the love and support they have for one another, particularly the guy’s daughter. Then, in his interaction with the criminals, Zeta realizes the guy is an innocent, caught up in a scheme whose details he doesn’t know about. So when the guy comes home early, and Zeta’s programming tells him he has to kill this blameless accountant and family man simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he can’t do it.
That’s a strong origin story, one made stronger by how much we’ve seen the effect it had on Zeta over the past twenty episodes. Ro’s story isn’t quite as strong, but we see that she had a protective streak, even when she was in Juvie, and that she also had a resourcefulness when it comes to escaping sticky situations long before she met Zeta, even if her desperation led her to fall in to the wrong crowd.
The frame story is frankly the weakest part here. Despite Crick the bounty hunter making for a formidable opponent in his first appearance, he’s watered down here, a secondary antagonist who has to make way for the flashbacks. There is something cool about having Richard Moll (Two-Face from B:TAS) playing a somewhat crazy dude who’s mad at Zeta for messing up half his face, but for the most part, Crick is dispatched without too much trouble, and it doesn’t do much but serve the purpose of adding some kind of threat to what’s a low-key, mostly internal episode.
Still, I appreciate the continuity touches here. The fact that Zeta is experiencing this because of Bennett trying to erase his brain earlier in the season works well as an excuse for the flashbacks. Ro giving Bucky crap for bailing on them then, only giving him some credit when he shows up and tries to help is a good mini-arc for the characters. And I especially like the parallel the episode draws at the end, where seeing the capacity for kindness, in a suburban family or in a robot on the run, changed both Ro and Zeta, and eventually made them their own kind of family.
Overall, this is an important, mythos-heavy episode for the show, illustrating important events we’ve only heard about until now, and it tells that story very well.